1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the transportation of articles within wheeled carriers and, in particular, to an apparatus for moving a plurality of such carriers together while allowing any individual carrier to be readily removed from the group.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In modern materials handling situations a myriad of applications exist in which articles to be transported are placed on or within a wheeled carrier such as an open cart, an enclosed compartment, or the like. Frequently, it is expedient to move a plurality of such carriers simultaneously. For example, often in the hospital environment it is desirable to move a number of wheeled carriers transporting items such as medication, supplies or the like to various areas of the hospital. Heretofore, with many types of carriers the maximum number of wheeled carriers that could be manually moved by an individual was two, e.g., by pushing one and pulling the other. Obviously, such a limiting of the number of carriers capable of being transported together to two is a most ineffecient means of moving a bulk amount of material.
If, on the other hand, some mechanical means of propulsion were employed, a greater number of carriers could be moved at once. However, the principal previous method of moving a plurality of wheeled carriers simultaneously was by attaching them to one another in a single-file configuration thereby forming a train. However, it will be readily appreciated that when articles are transported in carriers which are formed into trains, such carriers may only be removed or added to the train sequentially. For example, if the third carrier in a train is to be removed from the train prior to the succeeding carriers, all such succeeding carriers must first be disconnected from the train and then reconnected thereto after the desired carrier is removed. Clearly, such practices are inefficient, costly, time consuming and labor intensive.
Of course, another method of moving a plurality of wheeled carriers is to place all of the carriers themselves on a wheeled cart, or the like. However, such a scheme would require a much larger cart than the carriers themselves in order that such cart could support the weight of all of the carriers. In addition, means would also be required to load and unload the carriers to and from any such cart. Obviously, such a system utilizing a larger cart would be most costly and inefficient.
The subject invention is directed toward an apparatus for transporting a plurality of wheeled carriers together as a group while allowing the flexibility to remove one carrier from the group without necessitating the disruption of the entire group.